Pakistan in Media

Scant attention has thus far been paid to how the Taliban and some other extremist groups fund their operations. The ‘traditional’ picture is that there is a global network of informal funders and sympathizers, as well as at least two large state players in the Muslim world. Yet a picture is now emerging which tells a very different story as to how these groups get their money and sustain themselves – with three natural resources namely gemstones, timber and marble featuring strongly. The Afghan Taliban have long made their money in the opium trade, and to a small extent they do that in Pakistan; but Pakistan has always been a small-scale opium producer and the Taliban and others need bigger bucks. Necessity, goes the saying, is the mother of invention, and income diversity is now the name of the game.